Ministry website reveals a bit too much about the birds and the bees
TO be fair, it is the Department for Environment, Food... and Rural Affairs.
Even so, the last thing users of a Government website expected when they clicked on a link about bees was to be redirected to a page offering escort and dating services.
There, amateur gardeners seeking tips on how to attract more honey bees to their plants were instead urged to ‘fulfil their fantasies’ with ‘local singles’.
The Defra webpage was in support of the Bees Needs strategy which encourages the public to help insect pollinators by growing more nectar-rich flowers and cutting the grass less often.
Anyone hoping for tips on attracting honey bees to their gardens was presented with a long list of British neighbourhoods to click on. But each link directed them to the dating site offering sexually explicit encounters.
Records showed that the web address of the dating site was registered by Dimitar Tenev in 2016. In October, he also registered the Bees Needs web address.
Defra updated the webpage yesterday with a new link so users will no longer be sent to the wrong site. The link was correct when the Bees Needs scheme was launched in 2014, and Defra said it was unaware the ownership of the original Bees Needs site was later transferred to Mr Tenev.
Information on the dating website says it is owned by a British company called Venntro, which is based in Windsor, Berkshire.
Venntro is an internet company that specialises in managing the software behind thousands of online dating services. It turned over £24million in 2016-17.
Instead of branding the dating sites itself, the company provides the technical base for adult services plastered with other brands. More than 25,000 users a day signed up to dating websites on the company’s software platform.
Founder Ross Williams has received millions in dividends from the firm he founded in 2003.
A 2012 investigation by Channel 4 found that the company, then known as Global Personal, had duped clients into signing up to partner sites. It was accused of making fake profiles to attract users to sign up and pay to use the dating sites, a practice the company said it had since stopped.
Asked about its error, Defra said: ‘We are working hard to support our bees and other pollinators as these species are essential for pollinating crops and in turn human survival. Our biodiversity and national pollinator strategies have helped to create over 130,000 hectares of wildlife-rich habitat.
‘ The Bees Needs campaign brings together conservation groups, farmers and beekeepers to promote good practical advice so we can all do more to provide suitable habitats for bees and other insects.’ Venntro was contacted for comment.